The Pacific and Other Stories
by Mark Helprin
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 208)
Read in September, 2006
I had rather high hopes for this short story collection, The Pacific and Other Stories. Helprin’s manner is a kind of anachronistic old school seriousness leavened with mostly clean gags and jokes (though he’s not above profanity or vulgarity). Basically simple stories as simple morality tales, Good and Evil quite apparent and obvious. In this sense, Helprin, as a political conservative (he wrote speeches for the elder Bush), is also a cultural conservative of a certain decent kind.
Someti...more
Someti...more
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Read in December, 2007
I here make an admission about one of my limitations as a reader: I have never been able to fully appreciate the art of the short story. I tend to want the novel-length treatment for characters with whom I want to spend more time. I therefore took up this book with some trepidation, even though I had read and enjoyed other prose by Helprin.
My worries were groundless. The range of subject, time, and place was handled masterfully, and even though I like, as I said, to get to know characters in...more
My worries were groundless. The range of subject, time, and place was handled masterfully, and even though I like, as I said, to get to know characters in...more
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Read in July, 2006
First off: I hate politicizing literature. But sometimes it's inescapable.
It took me weeks to slog through this, and here's why: Helprin is so full of shit we'd mistake him for a latrine if he were painted white and dropped on a campground. Maybe I'm just falling into the same wrongheaded liberal trap that he accuses many of his reviewers of wallowing in, but this book feels--if not explicitly political--like an implicit piece of cultural commentary. It's a old-time conservative's wet dream...more
It took me weeks to slog through this, and here's why: Helprin is so full of shit we'd mistake him for a latrine if he were painted white and dropped on a campground. Maybe I'm just falling into the same wrongheaded liberal trap that he accuses many of his reviewers of wallowing in, but this book feels--if not explicitly political--like an implicit piece of cultural commentary. It's a old-time conservative's wet dream...more
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recommends it for:
caroline donanhue
"I am not a well educated man except that I have educated myself, and,
because I have educated myself, what I say will not stand up, for lack of recognized authority. This in turn leaves me free to say what I will, in the hope that, like those small forces that do not threaten empires and are thus not fully pursued, the things in which I believe can survive in some high and forgotten place until the power of empire subsides. And although I know that few will listen to or credit this, I t...more
"I am not a well educated man except that I have educated myself, and,
because I have educated myself, what I say will not stand up, for lack of recognized authority. This in turn leaves me free to say what I will, in the hope that, like those small forces that do not threaten empires and are thus not fully pursued, the things in which I believe can survive in some high and forgotten place until the power of empire subsides. And although I know that few will listen to or credit this, I t...more
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Read in July, 2007
Helprin's prose is clean and lucid, if occasionally too lavish for its ends, and I appreciate the dry, wry sense of humor in these stories. But all too often, the stories in The Pacific feel intellectually and even morally lazy. They are deliberately un-complex, presenting points without counterpoints.
In other words, many of these stories—"Monday" is a prime example—read simply as illustrations, examples-in-action, of Helprin's predetermined intellectual and moral stance...more
In other words, many of these stories—"Monday" is a prime example—read simply as illustrations, examples-in-action, of Helprin's predetermined intellectual and moral stance...more
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Read in June, 2007
Helprin writes beautifully, with well-crafted precision that is seamless in his conversational prose. He's one of those truly gifted authors that can say much more in what he chooses not to say. His narrative and dialogue are rich, full and spare all at once. He respects the power of his own writing and his readers and leaves unexpected emotions hanging tacitly in his text, in his comfortable and taut phrasing, in his readers' minds. He does this even as he crafts finely detailed scenes and can ...more
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recommends it for:
anyone who enjoys a GREAT set of short stories. This guy is the best.
I could never say enough about the quality of these short stories. Helprin is the very best at this genre and these are the single best collectin of short stories I have ever read. His depection in Monday is incredible and in each story he captures the essence of the human condition. He takes us to the emotional seat of each person in each story and it is an amazing depiction and presentation by a writer of how we live and of who we are. I'd have to say this is the single best work you can r...more
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Read in January, 2008
recommends it for:
Everyone
I haven't finished this collection yet, but it's been a real revelation for me. I had only read Helprin's longer work before (I thought was good, but not amazing), and his traditionalist style isn't really my cup of tea. But these short stories are on another level entirely - great, moving stuff. I appreciate anyone who can write moving pieces in short form without playing the normal games. And the lines in some of these - the description of the mother in "Last Tea with the Armorers" c...more
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Read in September, 2007
I found these stories genuinely moving, especially the title piece. Mar Nueva is also beautiful. A lot of these stories are told from a very old perspective, as in people at the end of their lives, which can be a little daunting since you start to look at things in your own life in those terms and wonder if troubled relationships your in now will become those that define you forever (and other heavy thoughts best left to death beds.)
I would skip the first couple stories and go straight to t...more
I would skip the first couple stories and go straight to t...more
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Read in March, 2008
I really enjoyed a few of the stories in this book. "Jacob and the Telephone" was my favorite. However, a few of his stories are so bogged down with his inability to keep metaphors to a tasteful minimum. Metaphors serve a useful purpose, and I find some beautiful, but if you overdo it, it just gets silly and I felt like laughing half the time.
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Read in October, 2007
Some of the stories in this book are absolutely mindblowingly fantastic. I lost interest somewhere past the middle (I'm not quite the target audience for all of Helprin's work) and by the time I came back to the book I wasn't in the mood for it anymore. I returned it to the library, but maybe I'll get back to it someday.
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Read in January, 2006
Sometimes I love short stories and sometimes I hate them. What I mean is, short stories are difficult to write and I really great ones are hard to come by. This is a wonderful collection of short stories...I particularly like the one about the contracter post 9/11.
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Read in January, 2008
I read refiner's fire, which loved for the language and the vividness of experience described by it, as well as the wartime setting of the book.
I loved these short stories because he sets down so well what sets a person free, and what allows a person to love.
I loved these short stories because he sets down so well what sets a person free, and what allows a person to love.
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Read in March, 2008
This author writes in a really, really descriptive style. Sometimes to the detriment of the plot. But the stories in this volume seem to all be about honor and love and are therefore uplifting rather than depressing. So I liked it!
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Read in August, 2007
Refreshing to read prose after reading much fluff of late. Enjoyed most of the short stories and several plot lines seemed worthy of further development. Writing is 'flowery' in spots, so if your saccharin tolerance is low, beware.
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Read in January, 2007
A great book. Short stories that have the depth and breath of a novel in anywhere from 10 to 80 pages. Great subway or vacation reading as you can pick it up and put it down easily.
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Read in July, 2007
I've read about a third of this - all good stories - but I didn't have time to finish before it was due back. So I'll pick it up again later.
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Read in May, 2007
Two stories in. Written in Helprin's usual grandly overelegant style, which works fantastically well sometimes. He is a guilty pleasure.
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as always Helprin captures me and keeps me up nights with his deep, complex, and very true characters. I want to know these people.
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Read in October, 2007
Mark Helprin, stop ripping my heart out with your short stories. The last 3 in this collection just killed me...
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